Welcome

Talk about a great way to utilize your resources, Chelsea and Joe completely killed it with all of their details! Chelsea had a vision from the start and each element pulled in to make the event better and better. Her family made all of the wood boxes for the centerpieces and also the insanely gorgeous doorway frame at the Altar. Her mother grew all of the succulents that I was able to use in the wedding party flowers and made all of the centerpieces and guest favors with them as well. We mixed some ferns and hydrangeas in galvanized buckets, loaf pans and even an old tackle box that belonged to Chelsea's grandfather. They made each place setting with a paper doily glued to scrapbook paper, gathered a collection of lace doilies to use under the centerpieces, pulled together some old vintage books with always works well into decor details and arranged the table names to be based off of old flash cards. Each guest had a different pattern of china to eat from. The Cigar Lounge was the ultimate with the way all of the rusty old chairs worked in with the mustard yellow couch right down to a cigar shaped pillow. Who wouldn't love such a lovely setting at The Vista in between the vineyard and the reception?

A perk to provide new inspiration when working at the same venue is to see how each client can re-invent it and take the wedding guest on a journey through the story you have created. I love the opportunity to join each client on showcasing details to make that happen. Ashley is a crazy rad artist. She creates all of the artwork and signage around The Vista Ranch and Cellars. She had such a vision and saw to each detail. Her creativity pretty much gave a new meaning to the whole DIY world. She gathered all of her props, designed coasters as guest favors, gathered old silver pieces for florals, whipped up some freehand table numbers in gold gilded wine bottles, made the ever so appropriate backdrop for her photo boat, utilized vintage world maps to use as her table assignement display and Dustin brewed the beers for the guests to enjoy!

About Natalie

Born and raised in Orange County, California, Natalie has always been in the wedding and event industry. Her career began in 1996 after graduating high school and going straight to work for her father's Southern California Italian wholesale bread bakery. Attached to that was also a deli/bakery that had been initially established in the family in 1968.
She was trained to be a pastry baker, making family recipes of Italian pastries and cookies and designing wedding cakes. This is when she was introduced to getting familiar with the variety of fresh flowers that she used to design on her cakes. Shifting through various aspects of the business, she was able to branch off into deli/bakery manager and sales to begin working with many chefs and catering companies.
With dabbling in other career areas, she also became a trained makeup artist and began doing hair and makeup for brides.
In 2003, she decided to take an opportunity to move to Yosemite Valley where her mom, Ginny, was currently establishing her wedding floral business. She teamed up with her mom to take care of immediate needs for bridal party hair and makeup and in the meantime, helping her mom with learning more about flowers and designing. In May 2004 she did her first complete wedding which was featured on The Knot! After which, she decided to focus strictly towards the flowers for weddings. After getting familiar with the venues and listening to clients needs, the consulting and coordinating process began. Planning destination weddings can be a difficult process and Natalie's passion for weddings is to take any of those concerns as well as their vision of the day and make it happen.
Over the course of the next couple years, teamed up with her mom with "Simply That...Flowers", they took on hundreds of weddings... making happy couples expectations come true!
Over the course of the years, websites were becoming a must and in order to build a solid portfolio, Natalie decided to tap into her lifetime passion of photography. Being a mother of three, she certainly has plenty of little cuties to practice on. She loves to focus on showcasing all of her artistic designs and also has begun shooting pregnant sessions, families, newborns and children.
In November of 2009, Natalie Galasso Designs was born. The company offers a variety of services ranging from creative and unique floral designs for events and weddings, cooridinating and consulting services for any bride in the planning process or needing support for the day of the event, as well as photography for her eye on capturing emotion and moments in our lives.